- Pritzker Fellows
- Former Fellows
- Mike Murphy
Mike Murphy
Veteran GOP Media Consultant & Campaign Strategist
Spring 2016 Pritzker Fellow
Seminar Series: “The Revolution Will Be Streamed: Inside 2016 & the Disruption of American Politics”
Biography
Mike Murphy is widely recognized as one of the Republican Party’s most successful consultants and an innovator in utilizing message strategy and advertising to move public opinion and votes. He served as lead strategist and media consultant to more than two dozen winning gubernatorial and U.S. Senate campaigns. Murphy’s clients include some of the biggest names in GOP politics including Florida Governor Jeb Bush, Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, Michigan Governor John Engler and U.S. Senator John McCain. Most recently, he led the Jeb Bush affiliated super PAC Right to Rise.
Mike, a partner in Revolution Agency, a strategic communications firm in Washington DC, also has been an adviser to numerous CEOs, Fortune 500 companies, and prominent trade associations, directing high-profile image, issue advocacy, and voter referendum campaigns. An early adapter, Mike’s campaigns for political leaders and corporate America are known for their trend-setting uses of new technology.
Murphy attended the Edmund Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University, served as an Institute of Politics Fellow at Harvard’s John F. Kennedy School of Government and often lectures at Harvard’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs. He is a frequent commentator on NBC’s Meet the Press, NPR, and a columnist for Time. Murphy also is a member of the Board of Advisors to the Institute of Politics at the University of Chicago.
Murphy has always had an interest in the creative arts and his skills have translated to the entertainment industry. He and his wife Tiffany live in Los Angeles where since 2003 he also has worked as a screenwriter and producer.
Seminars
“The Revolution Will Be Streamed: Inside 2016 & the Disruption of American Politics”
A collision of technology, pop culture, and big money is brutally disrupting the traditional model of American presidential campaigns. What do these changes mean and which institutions - parties, candidates, consultants, fundraisers, the media - are gaining or losing power? This seminar will be led by veteran Republican media consultant and strategist Mike Murphy, who during this election season led Right to Rise, the Jeb Bush affiliated Super PAC. Murphy will go behind the curtain to explore the practical politics of how presidential campaigns really work, why the rules of campaigning are rapidly changing and what that could mean for the future of American politics.
The old models of running for president no longer apply in 2016. How much of the traditional campaign model remains valid? What are the forces - economic, cultural, technological - driving a new disruption in American politics? How will presidential campaigns evolve going forward? Will voter alienation get better, or worse?
Which institutions - the parties, the media, the money bundlers - are losing power and which are gaining power as “software eats the world?" How is the news media landscape changing and to what end? Does traditional advertising still matter? What is the true impact of data science in campaigns and what does that means for American political discourse?
Special Guest: Aditya Sood, Producer of The Martian, Deadpool & Other Films
Trump for U.S. President? Gov. Schwarzenegger? Pop culture is invading American politics; from famous candidates, to reality show vulgarity, to non-traditional media channels. What is worth more in American politics today; a governorship or five million Twitter followers?
How does the new decentralized system of political fundraising really work? What do ultra donors really want, and what power do they really have? Does money make a real difference? How has the Internet changed political fundraising? In this final session, Murphy also will size up where the race stands and look ahead to this summer’s conventions and November’s general election.
Special Guests: Mason Fink, GOP Political Fundraiser for Jeb Bush-Affiliated Super PAC, Mitt Romney, and Others & Charlie Spies, GOP Election Attorney